João
I of Portugal (d. 1433) and his queen, Philippa of Lancaster (d. 1415)
were founders of the Avisian royal line, the second to rule in Portugal.

In the first decades of the fifteenth century, for the first time in the
history of the Portuguese royal family a funerary chapel was conceived
and purposely built as a royal pantheon. Significantly, João I (r.
1385-1433) had ascended to the throne not through direct descent but by
appointment by parliament (the cortes), and force of arms – namely
following his victory at the battle of Aljubarrota against Juan I, king
of Castile, whose wife, Beatriz, was the sole legitimate heir to the
Portuguese throne. The innovative dispositions made by João I concerning
his burial place provide evidence for a sense of statesmanship that
derives from this, and was thus first played out in his reign.

Other contemporary factors seem also to have helped promote the tomb’s
unprecedented grandeur. These were indeed new times, when a political
and institutional message was purposely and carefully formulated, as
befitted the founders of a dynasty whose aims included sustaining and
emphasising its links with the past. This new dynasty was also one
imbued with new principles and values. In fact, royal funerals tended to
become, from João’s reign, richer and more complex affairs, thus showing
the increasing awareness of the importance of such ceremonies, as well
as their potential to demonstrate the magnificence and exceptional
character of monarchical power and, indeed, of the monarch himself.

Accordingly, the description made by chroniclers of
João I’s death is the epitome of the ‘good death’ on
one’s deathbed, infused with ritual and symbolism. As
such, it functions as a reference point for the royal
family and the court. The act of dying, in the way it is
described, therefore resonates with the new outlines of
royal commemoration, in the shape of João’s most
personal architectural project: a funerary chapel within
the monastery he had erected to honour St Mary the
Virgin, summoned for protection on the eve of the battle
of Aljubarrota. This cannot be separated from the rising
notion that the dynasty he heralded was divinely
consecrated.

The options taken in the conception and design of
João I and Philippa’s memorial are its other major
novelty. The tomb is composed of a large, box-shaped,
limestone chest, supported by eight lion statues and
covered by a lid on which the effigies of the royal
couple rest. Two extensive epitaphs, commissioned by
their son, Duarte (r. 1433-8), garnish two of the sides
of the tomb chest. No decorative elements appear on the
chest apart from these inscriptions, except for foliage
and heraldry (of the kingdom of Portugal, of the Order
of the Garter and, at intervals, the badges of João and
Philippa).

Moreover, this is – strictly speaking – the first
joint tomb chest ever to have appeared in Portugal. Such
innovation, further to the tomb’s commemorative and
laudatory aspects, also helps explain its exceptionally
grand dimensions – 148″ long x 67″ wide x 42″ tall (375
x 170 x 184 cm). The processes of development this tomb
exemplifies cannot be seen separately from earlier joint
tombs in Portugal. In spite of each being devised as one
single undertaking, these tombs were in fact sculpted
and displayed individually. The model used for João I
and Philippa – a single compartment covered with a lid
featuring the two effigies – is, however, an absolute
novelty, and most likely the result of influences from
abroad; namely from England, as some scholars have
suggested, considering the well-known cultural role that
Phillipa played. Besides, the need to find a more
unusual model for the burial place of the founders of
Portugal’s new royal dynasty may also have lain on the
need to assert the independence of the kingdom and the
dynasty, in particular from Castile.

What might appear as the lessening of the king’s
and queen’s individuality is offset by the construction
of a message which surpassed the sense of the
individual’s confrontation with death, and might achieve
great political impact. Hence, this is not so much a
discourse where the believer has stepped forward,
supported by his intercessors, to face the Last
Judgement, exercising one’s own virtues and social
position, as seems to have been the case with earlier,
fourteenth-century, tomb art. Rather, death itself is
here taken hold of as an occasion for propaganda; as the
ultimate expression of the royal couple’s role as
founders of a new age and the guarantors of an
illustrious progeny. João and Philippa are shown hand in
hand – yet again, it would appear, denoting English
inspiration. King and queen trace for themselves an
image of perfect marital union, exemplifying a model of
virtue that (as in many other respects) seems to have
been set as an example for others to follow.

Notwithstanding the queen’s representation as a virtuous
and pious woman (her left hand holding a prayer book),
she is somewhat overshadowed by the way the king
presents himself, due to the meaningful and innovative
character of his effigy. Unlike earlier Portuguese
tombs, whose model was non-military, João I is depicted
as a soldier-king, fully clad in armour. He had ensured
independence from Castile and the continuance of the
Portuguese kingdom, and had conquered Ceuta, which stood
as a symbol of an expansionist policy and of the
struggle against Islam, now carried out beyond the
borders of the Iberian Peninsula. Certainly, he is the
image of a miles christianus, the bold warrior and
defender of Faith, who emerges both as a reference to
victories won over the Muslims in north Africa in the
onset of the Portuguese expansion, and also thinks back
to a mindset which, belatedly, sought to recover
chivalric and crusading ideals.

The non-existence of overt religious references in
the tomb’s decoration (although we must not forget the
altar which originally stood by the tomb) should not
therefore be mistaken for an absence of religious
meaning in the ensemble. Rather, such meaning is
balanced with the underlying message in the construction
of the king’s image as a model of militant Christianity.
Further to this, some influence of a chivalric kind
might also be perceived in the tomb’s iconography. Thus,
be it through heraldry, the military character of his
effigy, or the inscription recalling his most prominent
deeds, João I is memorialised, in his tomb, through his
achievements.

As follows, the apparatus surrounding the conception of
João I’s burial place is a clear reflection of his rule
while king, guided by two fundamental aspects: the
assertion of royal authority and the establishment of an
atmosphere of prestige surrounding the new dynasty,
associating it with a divinely conferred image of
authenticity – unpolluted, charismatic and
nationalistic. On the one hand, foreign influences were
adhered to and adapted. On the other, there is a sense
of continuity from the local tomb art of the past,
noticeable in Philippa’s effigy. That the tomb was (to
our belief) the work of a Portuguese artist probably
favoured this conservatism, framed by traditional
practices and the customs of the land, but which all the
same took absolutely innovative models as inspiration.

The monument to the founder king and queen of
Portugal’s second dynasty is in many ways a turning
point of great significance and innovation. Entirely
original in its form, the tomb of João I and his
Lancastrian wife would truly become a model for
Portuguese tomb art in the fifteenth century, inspiring
both monuments for other couples and for other knights
individually, which from this point onwards always
appear with a distinct military character.